Antiretroviral Globalism, Biopolitics, and Therapeutic Citizenship

Abstract

Early in 1998, a small youth group in Ouagadougou, Jeunes sans frontie `res, which had become successful in carrying out model sexual health and AIDS awareness raising campaigns, embarked on a new project. In a small house with a courtyard in an outlying neighborhood of Burkina Faso's capital city, the group opened a ''Friendship Centre'' for people with HIV. An erratic flow of donated medicines from France provided a small stock for the dispensary -''nothing much,'' but certainly better than what was available at the nearby state-run dispensary, where years of World Bank mandated cost-recovery had long ago emptied the pharmacy.The Friendship Centre was successful in attracting people with HIV in its first year -even though there were not enough medicines, there was always at least a warm welcome afforded by Madame Justine, the volunteer receptionist. Madame Justine had come to the group after her husband's death, which she believed had been caused by AIDS. Widowed, and with three small children to support, she had come to ask for support. The charismatic founder of Jeunes sans frontie `res, Abdoulaye Oue ´draogo, couldn't offer her a job, but as she was an older woman he thought she would have the right social stature to be the Centre's receptionist. He suggested she volunteer, and he would do his best to make sure that enough would come her way that she could keep paying her children's school fees and put food on the table.As the volume of patients grew, an informal camaraderie was struck up in the house's living room, which doubled as a waiting room. Its two wooden couches Ong/Global Assemblages

Constructing publics, preventing diseases and medicalizing bodies: HIV, AIDS, and its visual cultures

“…Additionally, in this new type of medicalization, the interest of companies tends to influence the design and implementation of public policies very much in line with the concerns of Nguyen (2007).…”

“…Another concomitant but conceptually distinct trend within the literature of AIDS and medicalization is related to the debate between those who defend the approach known as "HIV treatment is prevention" and those who defend a different approach known as "prevention is treatment" (see, for example, Kippax, 2010;Nguyen, 2007;Nguyen et al, 2011). Here, the debate hinges on the kind of public policies which better serve the aim of preventing new infections.…”

“…By 2009, CENSIDA funded 70 projects, most of them in Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Jalisco and Chiapas, all under the Estrategia Nacional de Prevención of the Federal Government. However, civil society organizations have so far also played an important role, not only in Mexico but globally (see, for example, Epstein, 1996;Kippax, 2010;Nguyen, 2007); by 2011, CENSIDA had a census of 211 of these (CENSIDA, 2009). Their role is going to be fundamental to achieve the UNAIDS 2020 90-90-90 2 and 2030 95-95-95 goals (UNAIDS, 2015c).…”

“…HIV infection itself has gone about a changing medicalization dynamic (see, for example, Epstein, 1996;Kippax, 2010;Nguyen, 2007). In its first stages of the 1970s, AIDS was seen as a factor starting an extended terminal care as the progression of the immune failure was witnessed with bafflement; then, in a somewhat quick succession, it was seen as a diagnostic mystery, as a virological medical challenge, as a lethal infection slowed down by a treatment ineffective in the long run, and as a manageable chronic condition with undesirable side effects.…”

Locating the global governance of HIV and AIDS: Exploring the geographies of transnational advocacy networks

“…In the process, the causes and effects of HIV and AIDS are creating new social divisions and solidifying old ones (Preston-Whyte, 2006), while simultaneously throwing up new political spaces characterised by notions of "new life" (Robins, 2005) and "therapeutic citizenship" (Nguyen, 2005). The complexities of these transformations in different places are related to the intensity and extent of the HIV and AIDS global governance infrastructure.…”